While we were in Colorado last week I had an inquiry come in from my website with a request to set-up a photo session and as I read it my heart sank. It was not the normal "we would like to get some family photos done" request. It was, we don't know how much longer we have with our little girl and we would like to take the opportunity now to get some photos taken of her. Violet was born in late April with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This wasn't anything that was known prior to birth but it was discovered shortly after she was born. (you can read more about their journey on her care pages - click here - ) They had been doing chemo but just last week made some huge decisions to stop. Go home. Enjoy every moment with their sweet baby...at home.
This is a excerpt from their care pages:
Yesterday, Justin and I brought Violet home for good. We met with the doctors again, and the blast cells in her bone marrow are filled with disease and a transplant will no longer be an option. Dr. Manalang explained that she would do whatever we wanted to do and if we wanted to keep going, she would, however she did not believe the leukemia would go away. She said if we continued with another round of chemotherapy, Violet would get really sick (possibly end up in the PICU) and at the end of the day, the leukemia would still be there. So they told us to go home, think about what we want to do, and we would see her in clinic on Wednesday.
After a lot of tears, Justin and I have decided we will no longer put our daughter though this pain. It would be completely selfish of us to continue. Dr. Manalang could not give us an exact time, but said Violet has more than a month and less than a year left. Either way, we will enjoy every minute we have left with Violet and we will make sure she knows how much she is loved. We may even go on a family vacation somewhere.
This is not us giving up. This is giving Violet the best life for her. We will continue to pray for a miracle! We will continue to go to clinic and receive small doses of chemotherapy to prolong life as much as we can. There is also oral chemotherapy we can give her. We will know more about that when we meet with Dr. Manalang on Wednesday.
Violet has completely changed our lives. She has taught us so much about love, life, family, hope, faith, and living! She is the strongest person we know, she is our little hero! I only hope and pray we can be as pure and simple as she is.
After a lot of tears, Justin and I have decided we will no longer put our daughter though this pain. It would be completely selfish of us to continue. Dr. Manalang could not give us an exact time, but said Violet has more than a month and less than a year left. Either way, we will enjoy every minute we have left with Violet and we will make sure she knows how much she is loved. We may even go on a family vacation somewhere.
This is not us giving up. This is giving Violet the best life for her. We will continue to pray for a miracle! We will continue to go to clinic and receive small doses of chemotherapy to prolong life as much as we can. There is also oral chemotherapy we can give her. We will know more about that when we meet with Dr. Manalang on Wednesday.
Violet has completely changed our lives. She has taught us so much about love, life, family, hope, faith, and living! She is the strongest person we know, she is our little hero! I only hope and pray we can be as pure and simple as she is.
We set something up as quick as possible and I was beyond honored to meet Violet and spend some time with them this past week. It wasa dreary evening and Violet was coming off a rough day but we still managed to get some happy smiles from her. Amy had gotten her an adorable tutu and so we started there...
She thinks her mom and dad are pretty funny.
Having just met them I do have to say she looks like her daddy (minus the flower)
She was getting sleepy, pretty normal,
being a model is tough stuff.
Still a smile over dad's shoulder.
She did fall asleep but we went ahead and changed her clothes and attempted a few more. Sorry, Violet, I snuck one in of you getting changed.
She pretty much slept the rest of the time and we were all fine with it.
Nothing as sweet as sleeping babies.
love me some toes
She was all about her paci,
heck it even matched her outfit.
totally conked out
so, so sweet.
Violet knows love. She is surrounded by it. She has impacted every life she has come in contact with and I have no doubt hundreds more who have never met her. I know she has impacted mine. Hearts are forever changed by this tiny little innocent bundle.
I put together a short slideshow of some of the other images from the evening. (Please scroll to the bottom of my page to shut off my music so you don't have dual music going). I love this song by Mindy Gledhill . (click to go to her site)
It is from her Anchor album.
